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The lives we project

When using any form of communication we choose what to highlight or not about ourselves.

Social media is heavily skewed towards people having lives full of peaks, be it really good (mostly) or really bad times that can be empathized with.

This is not new – this also happens whenever there’s any kind of meeting happening aftera long time without seeing certain groups of people… be it people you studied with, or distant relatives.

Unlike before, we’re positively bombarded with that kind of phenomena now – the price we pay for being ever more connected, ever better able to communicate with little regard for space and time, and with very little cost. This is a superstimulus.

This is likely to have amplified emotional impacts – if you’re happy with yourself, you’re bound to be happy for other’s successes. If you’re insecure, then not only will you have to see that one person whose life you thought was certainly not going to be more amazing than yours at that rare meeting… you’re going to be hit time and again with that kind of slap, and it’s not hard to see how we’d be left reeling.

Often the young can be most insecure, but also, at this point, the young are heavy users of social media… and while projecting better or more interesting lifes than they have (by choosing to highlight the good times), they can trigger an attempt to compensate from other people, creating a vicious cycle.

Perhaps turning off our social feeds and focusing on chats would be better? Or parhaps we should narrow down our social circles. In any case, a good way to break this is to stop skewing the way you present your life – in which case stopping to do it may be the least painful way to do it. Or trying to feel better about ourselves would make it more joyous to see someone else be absolutely killing it out there.

In any case, thinking about this and taking a grip on the situation may help you feel better and have improve your days, raising your quality of life.